Golden Globe Nominee Reactions

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The actor Mahershala Ali in New York in October.CreditAndre D. Wagner for The New York Times

Dec. 12, 2016

Mahershala Ali, ‘Moonlight’

Mahershala Ali is not at all used to awards fuss — which explains his leisurely, earnest manner while chatting with the Bagger this morning after the announcement of his widely expected Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor for his performance in “Moonlight.”

The conversation began at 6:09 a.m. his time (he was on the West Coast), and lasted exactly four minutes. It was Mr. Ali’s fourth interview since the nomination was revealed barely 30 minutes earlier, and many more chats with other reporters lay ahead: Mr. Ali is this year’s it-guy.

“This whole experience has caught me off guard,” Mr. Ali said. “It’s all really new — being nominated on this stage, among this peer group. Being involved in a film where my work is being individually recognized, as well as the film.”

He continued: “There’s been a lot of positive talk and absolutely I appreciate the nomination, but I think in some ways none of it’s real until it’s happening.”

The thing is, it is happening: He has already collected eight supporting-actor awards from various critics’ groups for his role as Juan, the drug dealer with a heart of gold in “Moonlight.” This year had already been an outstanding one for him. Weeks before “Moonlight” had its premiere at film festivals, he landed an Emmy nomination for outstanding guest actor in a drama series, for “House of Cards.”

“I was on my way out with that show, I’d done it for four years, I wasn’t expecting it at all,” Mr. Ali said of “House of Cards,” the Netflix drama. He added, “I was really trying to get new work that I connected to, and keeping it moving forward. So the ‘House of Cards’ stuff was really a surprise. I’ve kept on — —”

“Excuse me, sorry,” a publicist on the phone interjected just then, at the 3-minute-45-second mark. “We’ve got to wrap it up.”

The Bagger tried to rush in last-minute questions: Did Mr. Ali get up extra early for the Globes nominations? What was he doing when they came in?

The publicist sighed audibly, and Mr. Ali managed to squeeze in a few words — “I was up early, I get up early,” he said — before she jumped back in, saying to the Bagger, “We really have to go; we’ll try to call you back.”

“No problem,” Mr. Ali said gently. The Bagger bade farewell, and Mr. Ali’s people texted later to apologize and ask if more time was needed. The Bagger said it was O.K. We’ll doubtlessly meet again as the season churns ahead.

— CARA BUCKLEY

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Evan Rachel Wood in “Westworld.”CreditJohn P. Johnson/HBO

Evan Rachel Wood, ‘Westworld’

On some days, at “Westworld,” the HBO series about a futuristic Old West theme park populated with sentient automatons called “hosts,” Evan Rachel Wood is Dolores Abernathy, a rancher’s daughter living a seemingly contented life. On other days, Ms. Wood is Dolores Abernathy, a host who senses there is much more to her existence than she has been told. And then there are those days when she goes even farther off the map.

On Monday morning, Ms. Wood was adjusting to another new identity: Being a Golden Globe nominee for best actress in a television drama for the HBO show, which, in its first season, was also nominated for best TV drama. (Her co-star Thandie Newton was also nominated for supporting actress.)

Ms. Wood spoke on Monday about her nomination, making “Westworld” and what the future might hold for the series. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.

You gave a very emotional acceptance speech at the Critics’ Choice Awards last night, and today you learned you’re a Golden Globe nominee. How does this all feel for you?

I was so nervous. That was my first acting award. I feel like Dolores is going to be the character I’m most remembered for, and I’m really O.K. with that.

Did you know the journey that Dolores was going to go on over the course of the season?

I understood on some level, but all I knew about the character was how she begins this season. I don’t think I even knew who the rest of the cast was. It was all very hush-hush. I had no idea I was going to be playing about five different characters, and different spectrums and emotions. It wasn’t until about Episode 4 that I truly realized what show I was on.

Since you didn’t know the story in advance, did you and your co-stars spend a lot of time coming up with your own theories?

Oh my God, constantly. I’m sure I drove the rest of the actors crazy with all my theories. I had about 1,000, and maybe three were right. So I really sympathize with all the viewers. [Laughs] But what I love about the show is that you’re supposed to put the pieces together, and part of the fun is figuring it out. I’m just happy I don’t have to keep any of those secrets anymore. It was painful.

I don’t want to spoil too much for viewers who haven’t seen it, but what was it like for you to be part of such a bonkers season finale?

I can’t stop watching the finale. Shooting it was just so intense, and we were filming, I think, three episodes simultaneously. I was hopping back and forth between Episode 9 and Episode 10 and Episode 8, playing the same character but different variations on that character. Hopping from different sets and going, “O.K., what episode are we in? What time are we in? Who am I? O.K., go.” But I think it really helped inform my performance. Because I’m supposed to be in a dream and lost, and trying to figure things out.

Have you been briefed yet on what’s in store for Season 2?

I’ve heard murmurs and hints. The only thing I do know is that Dolores is going to be very different in Season 2. And might not even really be Dolores anymore.

Have you been fitted for a kimono?

Not quite yet. But I’m hoping my black-belt skills can come in handy at some point. I got that going for me.

Ryan Reynolds, ‘Deadpool’

Ryan Reynolds was changing his eight-week-old baby when notification tones began coming from his phone.

“I suddenly heard my phone pinging and it didn’t stop,” Mr. Reynolds said, quickly realizing that it wasn’t a typical Monday morning. “If you’re not nominated, you’re not going to get that many text messages.”

He was right and a glance online confirmed that he had earned his first Golden Globe nomination — for best actor in a musical or comedy — for his turn as “Deadpool’s” title character, a caustic superhero based on the Marvel comic. “I looked on the glorious, expansive interwebs and it was everywhere. It was an interesting moment.”

The Globe nomination followed a celebratory weekend for Mr. Reynolds, 40, who on Sunday won the Critics’ Choice Award for entertainer of the year.

While Mr. Reynolds is grateful for his Globe nomination, he said the fact that the film itself is in the running for a Globe (for best comedy or musical, a category that includes the front-runner “La La Land”) is the bigger victory.

“The film breaks a proverbial black glass ceiling; movies in this particular genre don’t usually get award nominations,” he said, adding, in a reference to the 11 years it took to get “Deadpool” made, “The long game very rarely pays off; sticking with something that long, you have to have some form of brain damage and I think I do.”

Mr. Reynolds has played a superhero before, in the 2011 “Green Lantern,” and he said the decision to continue fighting for “Deadpool” was partly the result of a “snowball effect.”

“It became more and more appropriate with every passing year as we reached peak superhero,” he said. “This character really ran counter to everything the other guys were doing. It was really just a character that I felt I could do complete justice.”

Though he admits to being behind on movie watching, he is rooting for “Hidden Figures,” “Moonlight” and Tom Hanks this awards season. (The first two picked up Golden Globe nominations on Monday; Mr. Hanks, who starred in “Sully,” was shut out.)

But before he can binge-watch the performances of his fellow nominees, it’s back to work on “Deadpool 2.”

“We’ve all this morning just been high-fiving each other and talking, it’s been a really great moment,” he said.

“When you have four grown men engage in a tickle fight on a hotel bed in their bathrobes, everybody wins,” he said.

— TAMARA BEST

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Donald Glover, left, and Lakeith Stanfield, in FX’s “Atlanta.” The series was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best TV musical or comedy.CreditGuy D'Alema/FX, via Associated Press

Donald Glover, ‘Atlanta’

Among the veteran shows that were nominated for the best comedy or musical Golden Globe on Monday, one rookie found its way into the pack: “Atlanta,” Donald Glover’s FX series about a young man trying to help his cousin start a rap career, earned a nomination in its first season. Mr. Glover was also nominated for best actor in a TV musical or comedy series. They are the latest distinctions for “Atlanta,” a category-stretching show that, beyond its narrative premise, finds innovative ways to address race, class, gender, social media and Justin Bieber.

Mr. Glover spoke on Monday about finding a voice (and an audience) for “Atlanta,” and the show’s relationship with his recording career as Childish Gambino. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.

How did you find out about your nominations today?

I was planning on getting up at 5:30 to get the nominations, and because of last night’s win [at the Critics’ Choice Awards], I ended up staying out late, and then I just woke up to like, a thousand messages. It’s a good way of finding out.

Is it fair to say that the sensibility of “Atlanta” comes, in part, from feeling like an underdog, or not having a place to express these ideas?

There’s a through-line that’s a bit of an antihero about “Atlanta,” an underdog, a Charlie Brown type, maybe. But I think now, more than ever, it’s hard to have intelligent conversation. We tried to make that active. Everything is divided right now, and nobody is willing to talk about perspective. So we just tried to give our show a very specific point of view. And also be fair to other points of view. Which you can’t do on the internet.

Do you feel like you can still hold on to that spirit now that the show is getting critical acclaim and recognition for awards?

I actually do. I don’t think people are connecting because they feel like the underdog. People are connecting because there’s an honesty that you don’t get in a lot of places anymore. We’ve never tried to be important. That helps us a little bit.

We’ve just had a presidential election that reminded many people of perspectives very different from their own. Do you think “Atlanta” can reach audiences beyond its intended viewership base?

I think that audience is actually super into our show. Because they want to know different points of view. If you give people something they’ve never seen before, they gravitate to that. I don’t think we’re ever going to make everybody happy, and that’s a really good thing, actually. That’s why people come back. It’s like Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. You keep eating them, even though they taste a little rough.

You took some big swings in the show’s first season — the Justin Bieber episode; the episode with its own commercial parodies — did FX ever ask you to dial things back, even a little?

No. They definitely asked what was going on sometimes. But they wanted us to succeed. We always wanted to make something punk.

You just released a new Childish Gambino album, “Awaken, My Love!” Are you tapping into different parts of yourself when you’re working on your music and your TV series?

They’re all the same to me. They’re all coming from the same id. It’s maybe using a different palette or a different texture or flavor. But I definitely can’t discern them, for myself. They’re all making people feel something. We’re working on Season 2 [of “Atlanta”] already, at least talking about it. And there’s a lot of stuff to talk about that happened this year.

— DAVE ITZKOFF

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Damien Chazelle, the director of “La La Land,” on the set with Emma Stone.CreditDale Robinette/Lionsgate

Damien Chazelle, ‘La La Land’

For a filmmaker whose movie just had one of the strongest limited openings of the year, garnered seven Golden Globe nominations and is increasingly building Oscar momentum, Damien Chazelle still seems quite down to earth. He is taking the accolades with modest graciousness. His film “La La Land” earned him two Golden Globe nominations for director and screenwriting, along with nominations for its stars, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. Speaking by phone from Los Angeles, Mr. Chazelle discussed how the awards circuit is different this year and why he doesn’t think of his musical as escapism. Here are edited excerpts from that conversation.

Your film “Whiplash” won three Oscars in 2015. Can you compare being on the awards circuit with that movie to now with “La La Land”?

In both cases, I’ve been a little taken aback and surprised by the response to these films. It has seemed even more intense with this movie than with “Whiplash.” It was such a new experience then and I had no real knowledge of the awards scene. It felt really busy. But now I look back and it seems like that was a lot less busy and intense than it is now. I guess I’m still learning as I go, but in both cases it’s been so rewarding and fun.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve been hearing people say about “La La Land”?

The idea of people getting to take some comfort, some amount of hope or joy from it, some reminder of the beautiful things in the world, is good. I hoped that those things would come across, but sometimes you get into the thick of it with a movie and you just kind of want to make sure you’re telling your story effectively. I started working on this movie about six years ago, so everything both in my life and in the world at large is different. I am surprised by the way in which, now, people really seem to be responding to those things about it.

You certainly have found success. Could you talk about making films like “Whiplash” and “La La Land” where characters are chasing that kind of success?

I’m aware that both are about trying to find that balance between life and art and I think in both cases, I wanted to be cognizant of the sacrifices that go into that. With “Whiplash,” I wanted to look at the dark side of that equation. Here, I wanted to be aware of the pain and sacrifices but look at it in a more hopeful way. This was about the beauty of chasing a dream.

A lot of people seeing this movie coming after an intense and difficult election year seem to be embracing it as escapism. Do you find the movie escapist and do you look for that in the movies?

Movies are one of the more transporting art forms, and there’s something about them that absolutely can be an escape. But I prefer to think of movies and musicals as less escapist and more like you’re temporarily putting on a different set of glasses to look at the world. A lot of the great old Hollywood movies, whether westerns, musicals or comedies, did actually wind up saying something about the society in which they were made. But they do it through metaphor. And I think that’s a more powerful idea than that of mere escapism.